An excerpt from

Jerusalem: An Anthology of Canadian Jewish Poetry
by Edited by Seymour Mayne and Glen Rotchin

Beginning with King David, Jerusalem has enchanted and inspired Jewish poets through the ages. Perhaps due to Canada's multicultural heritage, Jewish Canadian poets writing in English have maintained and expressed close ties to Jerusalem in their poems. Over a period of approximately seventy-five years, these poets have produced a unique body of work about the city, unparalleled in scope and volume in any other English-speaking country.

...

While we have not drawn on Yiddish works which remain untranslated, or on poems written in French, this anthology is meant to be read as a timely sampling of poems about Jerusalem by poets writing fromearly on in the century. Although efforts were made to find examples of regional voices, most of the work in this volume emanates from writers who were raised in central Canada and, in particular, Montreal. Due to its size, setting, history, and strong ethnic and religious affiliation, the Montreal Jewish community, more than any other in Canada, produced writers who were compelled to find meaning at the centre of their ethnic identity.